Diversity As I Say, Not As I Do: Organizational Authenticity and Diversity Management Effectiveness

Marcinko, Andrew

Abstract

This research examined how a misalignment between an organization’s espoused values and its realized practices regarding diversity affected employees’ affective commitment, organizational identification, and turnover intentions. Further, it investigated whether these relationships were mediated by perceived organizational authenticity. Using an experimental methodology, Study 1 tested the effects of both an organization’s diversity management approach (espoused values) and its demographic representativeness (realized practices) on employee attitudes. The results supported a moderated mediation model such that when an organization was less demographically diverse, participants reported lower identification and commitment when the organization also expressed instrumental diversity management approach values (i.e., diversity was instrumental to the organization’s primary business objectives). Further, these relationships were fully explained by the extent to which the participants perceived the organization as (in)authentic. In Studies 2 and 3, an intervention was developed based on previous research involving hypocrisy and two-sided messaging. When either a university (Study 2) or a company (Study 3) included an “honest hypocrite” message acknowledging that they were not yet as diverse as they would like, it negated the negative effects of an espoused values / realized practice mismatch. Finally, Study 4 surveyed working professionals and found support for a serial mediation where the positive relationship between an organization’s espoused – practiced discrepancy and employee turnover intentions was explained by perceived organizational authenticity and affective commitment / organizational identification in parallel. These findings’ contribution to our understanding of diversity management effectiveness is discussed."

Citation

Marcinko, A. (2020, August). Diversity As I Say, Not As I Do: Organizational Authenticity and Diversity Management Effectiveness. Presented at Proceedings of the Eightieth Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management (Best Paper Award)

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (published)
• Conference Name: Proceedings of the Eightieth Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management (Best Paper Award)
• Start Date: Aug 7, 2020
• End Date: Aug 11, 2020
• Online Publication Date: Jul 29, 2020
• Publication Date: Aug 1, 2020
• Deposit Date: Apr 29, 2020
• Publisher: Academy of Management
• Series ISSN: 2151-6561
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.5465/AMBPP.2020.189
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1142590